On climate, GOP needs to follow Reagan

Former GOP congressman Sherwood Boehlert is imploring his party brethren on Capitol Hill to stop denying the findings of the National Academy of Sciences and 97 percent of the world's climate scientists and start taking climate change seriously. In a Washington Post commentary, Boehlert concluded: "What is happening to the party of Ronald Reagan? He embraced scientific understanding of the environment and pollution and was proud of his role in helping to phase out ozone-depleting chemicals. That was smart policy and smart politics. Most important, unlike many who profess to be his followers, Reagan didn't deny the existence of global environmental problems but instead found ways to address them. The National Academy reports concluded that 'scientific evidence that the Earth is warming is now overwhelming.' Party affiliation does not change that fact."